A/N WOW I somehow forgot to upload this part and uploaded the next chapter instead. No wonder my chapters were off! Sorry about that, you probably noticed a really confusing jump in between 6/7. But it's fixed now!
The intellect in the Princess was fascinated at the foreign science that was slowly warming to her. The vampire kept her word and hadn't strayed from the subject of the war since their wild introduction, but, as expected, she was playing by her own rules. Marceline's words, though understood by everyone in the room to be vital war talk, carried hidden sneers for the Princess to unpack. At first it was subtle, but once the Princess caught on and retorted with double edged lines of her own it had quickly tumbled into a thinly veiled contest.
"Do you think we aren't capable? There's more to us than what you expect. We have many surprises. Can you say that about yourself?" Marceline said.
She was, of course, referring to the Princess' mention of rumors about the Underground's disorganization. Bubblegum squinted.
Totally deflected my jabs at her dysfunction. Now she brings it back to me with the same old tease. Damn her wits, where do I go now?
This particular exchange was the furthest they had detached from the linear dialogue of war talk and now they were selfishly immersed in this petty mind game.
The two royal woman kept the whole Council in sweaty impatience, but neither cared in the slightest. Moans and sighs occasionally stirred from the ghosts, but the women's stark indifference had killed any further dares to their rage. Bubblegum was biting her lip ever so slightly, diagnosing the correct words to employ.
"There's quite a difference between being exciting and being interesting. To be interesting, enduring, one also must be fulfilling. You seem to miss that we have quite the responsibility, or… Is that easy to forget for you?" Bubblegum said with a keen half smile. The façade of war talk was quivering.
"Hm." Marceline chuckled lightly. "Seeming interesting doesn't save you from being a total bore, Princess." The façade was shattered.
"I'd rather be your definition of boring then a screw-up!" The Princess shot up from her seat in a rage.
"Oh, so you are perfect then?" Marceline snapped from across the table, whipping her eyes from a view of a dark corner towards the Princess who was stooping over the table.
Bubblegum fumed under the harsh light, completely unaware of the shocked crowd about her. In an unplanned moment, her raging eyes met Marceline's fierce gaze and she locked onto the vampires piercing silver flames. In that pause the tension in the room seemed to suck away, the heat of rage falling out. It was like they had both been inflating a balloon with their bickering and, upon shaking out across its limits, it had shattered in a quick snap. And as it died away they both came to see each other's surprised faces tilting on the edge of laughter.
"This is silly" Bubblegum half-whispered, and they shared an unfettered laugh.
The council seemed to sigh as the two women laughed at themselves, knowing that the frightening standoff had dissolved into some odd friendliness. Only few wondered still about the deeper context of the interaction- most of them were simply glad to have it over with. Slightly embarrassed now, Bubblegum motioned for her goblin aide to wrap up the dialogue and finish the meeting. She leaned back out of the light and sighed, exhausted from the event. There was a lot to meditate on, especially how disgustingly eager she had been to jump into the fires of emotion, seeking that vampire's throat. Presently, she glanced up to peek at Marceline who was also sitting back in the shadows.
From the dark, Marceline allowed herself to smile and indulge in the moment. The world around her was vibrating like all was new and fun. Her body still blazed with the adrenaline of the standoff, but her head matched it equally with activity.
She is…
Marceline didn't want to get distracted, the path she now could see herself taking required all her focus. To dabble too long would spoil the spontaneity of the moment and would flag the courage she was quietly winding up inside her.
Exciting…
She darted her eyes towards the darkness where the Princess was sitting, her heart jumped.
I can't let her just leave… I have to do something about this.
Marceline started repeating this over and over to hold out her courage as the hearing slowly dragged to a close by boring men who looked just as eager to spring from their seats. In the ensuing chaos of the adjournment she slowly made her way around the circle, keeping to the shadows as she waited for the Princess to finish the conversations that were lined up in front of her. A ghost broke out of the haze and confronted Marceline.
"I hope you know we got nothing solved today due to your little game." He whined, squinting at her.
She looked at him, contemplated lashing out in anger, but quickly shot her glance back to the Princess. Seeing her still safe within the Hall, she turned to the ghost again with a cold look,
"I'm the one that's going to be fighting here, ghosty. So if you're not gonna be risking your life, you're also not going to be deciding which battles I fight. Why don't you just go off and grovel, seeing as you're not good for much else, hm?"
He scoffed and shook his head, muttering to himself as he floated back into the crowd. She watched him fade away, smirking at the excitable vigor she was running with. However, her pride drained the instant she glanced to see the doors of the Hall spilled out and the visitors nowhere in sight. She cursed her gloating self and tried to push her way through the crowd, felt it tightening as they slowly moved towards the exit. She was truly scared that she might lose her chances of continuing the night and wildly battered the ghosts to break out, skimming across the table in a desperate dash for the exit.
The princess shut her door with a weight of finality, slouching over into a plush chair that was carefully placed next to her travelling vanity. She could have crushed it were it not for the nice furniture to bring her in. Her head flopped into a corner of the chair and she let her limbs lay as they had sprawled out. However, even with the exhaustion of travel and the day's wild events, her mind wouldn't give her rest. She twitched and squirmed around the chair, trying to shake the thoughts that assaulted her. With the dose of her tiredness, the thoughts came in jumbles. Everything that happened today was too dramatic, too fast, too… emotional.
That word had acquired a malicious vibration to her mind recently. It had always been a concept to be stowed away when she wore the crown, but now she wore the crown as she pushed against herself and writhed in pain. Her personal purging of emotion was coming back to haunt her, for all of it flooded her mind and she had no grasp on how to define it. Did she feel angry? Accomplished? Or was it disappointment? It was as if she were trying to catalogue individual grains of sand that sat atop a heap she held in her hands- all the while lying on a beach. Everything around her was unfamiliar- she was shivering in the trap of her own mind. With half dim eyes she looked through an open window in front of her to see the brilliantly white moon that was framed in the great hole they had descended from. An aching for the surface struck her.
She squeezed her eyelids together and tried to find a quiet place above the storm, but it wouldn't help long. Behind her a shuttered window jiggled and creaked open with the slight touch of a pale hand. Someone cleared their throat from the outside air into the interior. A rush of hot blood jolted the Princess, she knew of only one person who would dare to breach her privacy.
"Ahem, your guards are annoying." The expected sweet swing of Marceline's voice echoed in lightly.
She chose the furthest window back, was she being cautious? The Princess wondered.
Dang, she wasn't in bed. Marceline frowned, still hidden behind the folded panels. She tapped a panel and set it upwards.
"Princess?" She ventured.
With this long of a pause she was losing her pacing and getting less confident. What could be-
"Oh? Who's at my window?" Bubblegum called out, pitching her voice with just enough surprise to seem freshly awake.
Marceline deepened her frown, it was the second time today her smooth intro had been foiled.
"Oh I was just saying how incompetent your guards are. They ask too many questions." Marceline said, turning within the cover of the panels to see Bubblegum's shadow billowing from another open view of the moonlight.
The Princess was sitting dead upright in her chair, tilting her head with forced awareness, casting a very fine outline.
"The meeting is over, what are you doing here?" She flatly said from the chair, but glanced back quickly. She saw nothing but darkness and cursed silently.
Marceline saw Bubblegum reel around by the shadow play, it was a sort of signal that allowed her to silk her two legs in through the window. She still sat deep in the shadows, but she was in. She brushed across the bed, seemingly unknowing, and the creaks brought Bubblegum's awareness to the enclosing distance. She quietly slipped off her chair during a brief racket coming from a nearby pack of drunks down on the street. She now stood on the floor, keeping to a shadow.
"Marceline…" She distractedly said, trying to whisper as harshly as possibly.
"Oh yah, well I was going to ask you something…" Marceline stopped at the end of the bed and tilted a little into a shard of light, then swerving back again into the shadows. The Princess had seen only a flash of teeth and scarlet red lips.
"But you left. And your guards…. Well you know." Her milky eye whites reflected off the pillar of light.
"I didn't know you required me." The Princess stood rigid beside her chair.
"Heh. Well, it was just a question..." The vampire warmed up, coming into the direct moonlight.
Black leather flickered in the bone glow of the moon, then there were boots, straps, and wolfish grey eyes. Bubblegum unconsciously widened her eyes as she took in all of the view, her blood flying through her veins.
"Wha-t is your question?" She said, rocking back slightly.
"Well… If you're not too tired I was going to invite you somewhere… A place we could discuss things we missed today?" Marceline said, hooking up her voice at the end.
Betraying the tension in her question, Marceline popped up into the air and settled leaning back, relaxed. Her eyes awaited the answer.
Bubblegum pulled back for a second, trying to regain her composure. Many thoughts lined up at the end of the haze of confusion, but a simpler reply leaked out of her mouth in indulgence.
"Okay." She said, smiling internally at Marceline's quiet shock. The vampire had not expected such a quick response.
"Hah. Well- okay then, Princess. You may follow me." She motioned with her limbs.
There was nothing much else to do but follow her.